The Poisonous and Deleterious Substances Control Act was partially amended and came into effect in August 1972 so as to criminalize the act of abusing thinners, etc. Since then, as shown in Fig. 4-1-2-1, most juvenile drug offenses have come under Poisonous and Deleterious Substances Control Act violations. However, the number of juveniles referred by police for violations of this Act has been on a declining trend, after hitting a peak (29,254 juveniles) in 1982, and its rate among overall drug offenses has also been decreasing.
  The number of juveniles cleared for Stimulants Control Act violations increased significantly from 1975 to 1982, reaching a record high at 2,769 juveniles in 1982. Recently, the number had been on a downward trend since 2001, but increased by 40 juveniles to 435 in 2005, and the juvenile rate accounted for 3.2% (unchanged from the previous year) of the total number of persons cleared for Stimulants Control Act violations (Source: The Pharmaceutical and Food Safety Bureau, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, The Criminal Investigation Bureau, National Police Agency, and The Guard and Rescue Department, Japan Coast Guard).
  The number of juveniles cleared for Cannabis Control Act violations and Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Act violations has increased recently, but in 2005, 182 juveniles were cleared for Cannabis Control Act violations (down by 18.4% from the previous year) and 69 juveniles for Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Act violations (down by 13.8% (id.)) (Source: The Pharmaceutical and Food Safety Bureau, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, The Criminal Investigation Bureau, National Police Agency, and The Guard and Rescue Department, Japan Coast Guard). Most Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Act violations were for synthetic narcotic drugs like MDMA (Source: The Criminal Investigation Bureau, National Police Agency).